An Academic Decathlon success story

TRACY - Jorja Rule, the coach of the Tracy High School Academic Decathlon team, calls Miguel Rivera her ringer.

Dana M. Nichols

TRACY - Jorja Rule, the coach of the Tracy High School Academic Decathlon team, calls Miguel Rivera her ringer.

His grade point average is just a whisker under 3.75, making him eligible to compete in the scholastic division of Academic Decathlon. Each Academic Decathlon team is required to have three honors (3.74-4.0 GPA), three scholastic (3.0-3.74) and three varsity (2.99 GPA or less) competitors.

By requiring teams to include members at all achievement levels, Academic Decathlon tests how well those teams can learn new material, rather than what they already know or the skills they already have. This year, they've been learning about genetics and World War I.

Rivera, 17, has more than done his part, helping Tracy High win the San Joaquin County decathlon Jan. 25 and Feb. 1. Rivera won 10 medals, more than any other member of the Tracy High team.

After those victories, Rule said she told Rivera's parents, Agustin and Socorro Rivera, "Thank you very much for Miguel."

The way Miguel Rivera sees it, however, he's the one who is grateful to Academic Decathlon, because of the way the contest has honed his study skills. Rivera, now a senior, has been on the team since his freshman year.

"It was the first thing I ever did academically that really challenged me," Rivera said.

Devouring 1,000-page Academic Decathlon handbooks on topics such as genetics, Russian history, the space race, or the history of World War I boosted his ability to tackle regular school subjects, he said.

"Memorizing information for my biology and history classes is really easy at this point," Rivera said.

Rivera and his teammates for the past month have kept up the long hours of study in preparation for the state Academic Decathlon championship that begins today in Sacramento.

Rivera has overcome some challenges to become a strong Academic Decathlon competitor. His parents are immigrants from Mexico, and he grew up speaking Spanish at home. Although his father, an employee at a glass bottle factory, now speaks English well, his mother does not.

And despite all those medals, Rivera doesn't feel entirely confident in every Academic Decathlon event.

"It's the speech and interview I'm most nervous about," he said.

Still, he's developed methods to overcome the challenges, designing his own flash cards, for example, to focus himself at times when he might otherwise feel overwhelmed by large blocks of text.

This summer, he plans to take on a new challenge by participating in a program at his father's employer, the Owens-Illinois factory in Tracy. The program for the children of employees will allow him to work in the plant for a few months before heading off to college.

Rivera has already been accepted into computer science programs at several California State University campuses, and he's awaiting word from University of California, Berkeley, his first choice.

As he prepares to head off to college and adult life, Rivera again returned to the fact that he believes Academic Decathlon strengthened his ability to achieve.

"I would encourage more kids to do Academic Decathlon," he said. "It's really all about the effort you put into studying."

Contact reporter Dana M. Nichols at (209) 607-1361 or dnichols@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/calaverasblog and on Twitter @DanaReports.